Some experts say IT professionals are a dying, increasingly unnecessary
breed, and many undergraduates are focusing on careers outside of
computing, even though Australia faces a national shortfall in IT
personnel, a growing reliance on technology, and a population crazy for
gadgets. IT school directors assign culpability for this decline on the
dotcom meltdown and parents' concerns that a computer science degree will
not assure their children stable or meaningful employment. De Montfort
University computer science lecturer Neil McBride contends that people can
now create complex business, science, and entertainment computing
applications without a heavy university background in programming or
mathematics thanks to high-level tools. CORE President and professor in
the University of Technology, Sydney's IT faculty Jenny Edwards says the
downturn in computer science enrollments and graduates is not isolated to
Australia; other English-speaking Western countries are also suffering
partly as a consequence of losing outsourcing contracts to India and other
nations. Edwards remains convinced that computer science is ailing, but
not extinct. "People forget our lives are now digital--sure there are
tools that automate some of the [software] writing and some of the work is
being outsourced to Asian countries, but still there is a demand for
computer experts and now there are not enough graduates," she maintains.
Monash University retiring professor John Crossley thinks young people's
infatuation with technology hits a wall when it comes to learning computer
science. Royale Melbourne Institute of Technology IT professor Justin
Zobel sees a combination of trends contributing to the drop-off in computer
science students, including a shift in the reasons people choose to enter
the field. He notes that whereas two to three decades ago IT was regarded
as "a science-fictional concept--this all-mighty and powerful thing that
allowed people to create things like robots," nowadays the commonplace
presence of computers and IT has discouraged people's attitude that they
can create new technologies or cultures with computing.Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

To address the increasing number of students who, over time, lose their
interest in computer science, ACM has created a brochure detailing exciting
opportunities in the computer science world. Eric Roberts, Stanford
University computer science professor and ACM's Education Board co-chair,
has seen computer science at Stanford fall from the second-most popular
major to the seventh; Roberts believes students transfer to other majors,
such as economics and biology, in search of more money, cutting edge
subjects, and stimulating problems. In response, ACM's brochure highlights
the computer industry's involvement in modern areas such as robotics,
gaming, online music distribution, and digital forensics, and emphasizes
the variety in computer science, from theory to finding answers to "real
world problems" to radical inventions. For students unsure as to which
area would suit them best, the guide breaks down the areas of study:
computer engineering for those interested in building progressive tools,
information systems for natural-born "troubleshooters," and software
engineering for "big picture" people. The guide is also intended to
correct misconceptions about the industry; while many believe offshoring
has hurt the number of U.S. jobs in the computer science field, there are
actually more computing positions today than at any other point in the
past, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS also
anticipates computer science jobs to be one of the fastest-growing careers
over the next 10 years.Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks could offer salvation for an Internet on the
verge of being inundated by digital video, according to Carnegie Mellon
University computer scientist Hui Zhang. He projects that video
applications will comprise 98 percent of all Internet traffic within two
years, and P2P networks' lack of central servers in mesh architectures will
offer more support for additional users and take away the weaknesses of
traditional networks that follow a tree-like architecture. Obstacles to
the adoption of mesh architectures by ISPs and content distributors include
the bandwidth requirements for reassembling files fragmented into blocks by
P2P networks, and the fact that ISPs stand to lose money by carrying
subscriber-generated P2P traffic. A combination tree/mesh scheme called
Chunkyspread is being tested by Cornell University computer scientist Paul
Francis. Chunkyspread arranges PCs in a tree configuration, but the
branches have less weight to carry because the PCs can also link to each
other; furthermore, the system can save bandwidth by reassembling files in
"slices" instead of blocks. Zhang, meanwhile, says he is developing
software at his Rinera Networks startup for the purpose of creating "an
ecosystem such that service providers will actually benefit from P2P
traffic." The software is designed to identify P2P data, allow ISPs to
determine how much data they should voluntarily carry, in what amount and
at what price, and then deliver it with the reliability of server-based
content distribution systems while simultaneously tracking everything for
accounting reasons. Zhang insists that it is not his intention to empower
service providers to mandate the kind of traffic they will carry. "On the
other hand, if P2P users benefit from transmitting and receiving more bits,
the guys who are actually transporting those bits should be able to share
in that," he says.Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

The desktop took precedence over the Web on Friday during the Desktop
Matters conference in San Jose, Calif., as presenters focused on Java
client application technologies such as Swing. "For certain types of
applications, desktop's the only way to go," Captovation chief software
architect Rob Abbe said, offering applications that need to interface with
high-speed scanners and other peripherals as an example. The open-source
Spring Rich Client Project, which seeks to offer a way to build rich client
applications that leverage the Spring framework, supports Swing
applications. "There are hundreds of major companies using this for very
large and significant production applications," said Jim Moore, a
consultant at Interface21. Another presentation focused on open-source
jMatter, which features Swing and Hibernate object-relational persistence
software, is built for developing applications for small businesses, and
leverages Naked Objects Architectural Pattern. Meanwhile, the GUI
generating engine for Swing applications, SwiXml, also was discussed.Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

The results of an October 2006 test of international domain names that use
non-English characters have been released. The test was carried out by
ICANN with the eventual aim of introducing international domain names based
on Chinese, Arabic, and other character sets. Work on the international
domains is expected to be complete by 2008. ICANN's test pertained to
current versions of the root servers that take users to the location of a
domain name. Lars-Johan Liman of Swedish firm Autonomica AB commented
about the tests, saying, "All answers were consistent with expected
behavior, and no unexpected delays were discovered." Additional tests will
examine how the system performs when used by real Internet users. Last
October, Vint Cerf warned that it could be "risky" to implement IDNs, while
ICANN must still address how IDNs will be adapted to existing governing Web
addresses.Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

Engineers at NASA's Microdevices Laboratory fabricated a quantum chip for
D-Wave Systems of Canada, according to principal investigator of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory's quantum chip program Alan Kleinsasser. During a
Feb. 13 news conference at Mountain View, Calif.'s Computer History Museum,
D-Wave claimed to demonstrate a prototype quantum computing device,
although industry experts were skeptical upon learning that the demo was
conducted remotely via wireless. "Businesses aren't too fascinated about
the details of quantum mechanics, but academics have their own axes to
grind," said D-Wave CEO Ed Martin in a Feb. 27 interview. "I can assure
you that our VCs look at us a lot closer than the government looks at the
academics who win research grants." Martin said the computer was a hybrid,
running applications on a digital device and having the NASA-built quantum
chip function as an accelerator or coprocessor. The back end was comprised
of a rack-mounted PC with a commercially available processor, he explained.
Martin noted that the chip used in the demo could run at a speed of 16
quantum bits, or qubits; D-Wave's plan is to increase that speed to 32
qubits by year's end and 1,024 qubits by the end of 2008. The
D-Wave-designed quantum processor was manufactured by NASA from aluminum
and niobium and chilled in a tank of liquid helium.Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

A factsheet released by ICANN shows that the Feb. 6 DDoS attack on six or
more of the Internet's root servers only damaged two of the servers, both
of which lacked a protective new load-balancing technology called Anycast.
All of the other servers that were attacked had Anycast installed. ICANN's
document states: "Anycast allows a number of servers in different places
to act as if they are in the same place. So while there remains 13
locations on the network for root servers, the reality on the ground is
that not only are there often dozens at one spot but dozens of servers in
other locations that can also deal with requests." The Feb. 6 attack was a
two-pronged assault, with the first assault lasting 2.5 hours and the
second lasting five hours. Hundreds of zombies were responsible for the
attacks, and while it is impossible to determine the geographic location of
the attackers, experts believe they came from Korea or another location in
the Asia Pacific region. The G-root (run by the U.S. Department of Defense
and located in Ohio) and the L-root (run by ICANN and located in
California) were damaged in the attack. Three other servers have yet to
implement Anycast, but it is expected that they will now do so.Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

The Association of the United States Army held its winter symposium last
week, with a diverse group of government researchers focusing on the
similarities in the systems that they study, with hopes of applying common
patterns to develop robust complex networks. The gathering brought
together researchers in biotechnology, ecosystems, behavioral science, and
other fields to discuss circulatory, respiratory, central nervous systems
in fish and other biological systems. Jagadeesh Pamulapati, deputy
director for laboratory management and assistant Army secretary for
acquisition, logistics, and technology, says predicting the behavior of
larger and more complex networks will be possible when researchers have a
better understanding of biological, molecular, and economic networks. The
researchers want to find the common underlying rules and determine whether
the systems can have a common language, and whether their behaviors and
relationships can be described in a mathematical formula. Lt. Col. John
Graham, assistant professor of behavior sciences and leadership at West
Point, said the search is important because "the bad guys are getting good
at network science."Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

Rick Stevens is head of the Computing and Life Sciences (CLS) directorate
at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, which is
attempting to build basic scientific knowledge, address energy-related
environmental concerns, and devise and manage new sources of energy via the
integration of information technology and biotechnology. Stevens is also a
computer science professor at the University of Chicago, where his research
chiefly focuses on computational biology. One of the pluses of Stevens'
DOE job is access to supercomputers, whose vast computational resources he
sees as critical to the analysis and resolution of systems biology
problems; petascale systems could help simulate cells that incorporate
genetic data, enabling researchers to predict how a cell will react to
different environments and substrates, and carry out computations to
understand the design shortcomings of natural and artificial biological
systems. Stevens says there is already plenty of computing power to study
such problems, but there is also a shortage of people with a combined
computing/mathematics and biology background. The CLS directorate leader
sees value in futurist Ray Kurzweil's controversial vision of a
computer-biological convergence that facilitates "a technological change so
rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history."
Kurzweil predicts that this transformation, or "Singularity," will take
place by 2045, but Stevens is more realistic. "To solve problems you need
three things--time, money and ideas," he says. "If you have two, you can
compensate for the other one. Kurzweil collapses time and money because of
exponential processes. What's left are the ideas."Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

National ICT Australia (NICTA) is developing intelligent surveillance
technology that would be able to predict behavior and identify faces, even
from a distance and if the angle is impaired. The operating system and
software package makes use of sophisticated algorithms to analyze physical
characteristics, appearances, and mannerisms from analog video data. The
iBox is able to convert the data into a digital format for motion
detection, facial recognition, and behavior prediction. David Snowdon, the
operating system's developer, says public areas that demand high-level
security such as airports and transit facilities would be a good fit for
the system. "IBox overcomes the problems of traditional surveillance and
sensory technology because it can be located at higher, lower, or more
obscure angles while still making a positive ID with far less [facial]
information," says Snowdon. "It could be used to detect whether someone is
carrying a weapon-like object, or if they are planning to jump from a train
platform and it can more accurately match facial characteristics to a
database."Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

Bor Jang, dean of the College of Engineering at Wright State, is not
overly concerned about the large number of first-year computer science or
engineering students who switch majors. "Many students change their major
at least once during their college career and some change their major
several times ... it comes with the territory," says Jang. "A lot of
students graduating from high school feel that they have to have a major
picked out before they start college, so they tend to pick majors that
their parents or teachers think are good for them." Fifty-eight percent of
computer science or engineering students at Wright State change their
majors. In 2004, Wright State started offering EGR 101, which helped
improve retention by 10 percent, and the university hopes to duplicate that
percentage each year. Officials say the math and science demands usually
give students some problems, adding that students must have a solid
foundation in algebra, trigonometry, and physics. The university is also
considering developing an EGR 100 class that would serve as a refresher
course on trigonometry and algebra and help improve retention.Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

A new graduate certificate program at the University of Ottawa is allowing
recent graduates and tech professionals to mesh their technical and
creative abilities in a hands-on approach to modeling and animation for
video games. "The certificate will prepare them for the virtual reality
and gaming industry because the five courses that the certificate is based
on are both theory and application," explains University of Ottawa
multimedia communications lab director Abdulmotaleb El Saddik. "This is
the first step toward crossing the boundary [from engineering to arts and
entertainment] because students will be learning how to deal with different
virtual environments and do animations." The certificate program lets
participants keep up with new technologies without abandoning their jobs.
One state-of the-art technology the program exposes participants to is
haptics. "We used to just have audio and visual and now we have the sense
of touch on our computers," says student Rosa Iglesias, who plans to use
the technology to help the blind use computers. "Instead of using vision,
you can use touch to 'see' the graphics," she says. "I'd also like to
develop a map explorer for blind people to find their way around a city."
The program also focuses on marketing, using psychological profiles and
evaluations of gamers.Click Here to View Full Article
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Advanced research into artificial intelligence that would allow computers
to discuss problems among themselves and come up with solutions on their
own is being pursued by the British University in Dubai (BUiD). One
question the researchers want to answer is whether computers could debate
and negotiate in an automated market, similar to the traditional processes
of influencing the price of goods and services. "Argumentation and
negotiation are key elements of human communication and if we are able to
replicate these processes in computer networks, we will have the potential
to have a fully-automated marketplace which achieves compromise through
dialogue," says Iyad Rahwan, lead BUiD researcher. Artificial
intelligence-led argumentation and negotiation could have huge implications
for business and communities worldwide. The implementation of artificial
intelligence in such a manner could be useful in legal disputes, business
negotiations, labor disputes, scientific inquiry, risk analysis,
scheduling, and logistics. The research's impact could even extend to
democratic debate or unmanned space exploration. "Applying argumentation
in artificial intelligence is a very challenging problem and requires the
construction of very sophisticated mathematical models of dialogue," Rahwan
says.Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

Although science and technology have long been male-dominated, there are
increasing instances of passionate women finding ways to enter this club.
Co-editor of "She's Such A Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology And
Other Nerdy Stuff" Annalee Newitz is encouraged by a rise in female
computer-science Ph.D graduates between 2003 and 2004, while the National
Science Foundation estimated six years ago that 56 percent of engineering
and science graduates were female. Yet just 25 percent of science and
engineering jobs were held by women, and Newitz points to several obstacles
women face, such as a lack of women to support them in the sci-tech domain,
and lingering if understated sexism. Newitz cites a 1997 Swedish Medical
Research Council report that women in the sciences had to have productivity
levels more than twice that of their male equivalents in order to obtain
grants or funding. But she says more women are being hired by software
development companies now. "Sometimes people think that a woman doesn't
know her tech stuff," notes Amber McArthur of Toronto, who wears multiple
hats as Citytv's new media specialist, host of the CommandN weekly vidcast,
and co-host of the net@nite podcast. "But as soon as you show them that
you do, you should just hold your head high and support other women who do
the same."Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

Dr. Takeo Kanade of Carnegie Mellon University will be honored for his
many achievements in the field of robotics at the TK60 symposium, which
will also coincide with the Helen Whitaker professor of computer science
and robotics' 61st birthday. Kanade developed the first direct-drive
robotic arm and first complete face-recognition system, which are still in
use today, while his EyeVision system facilitated "virtualized reality" of
action from any angle through a combination of cameras and computer
software. During Kanade's tenure as its director, Carnegie Mellon's
Robotics Institute became the premier center for robotics research, recalls
Dr. Robert Bolles of SRI International's Artificial Intelligence Center;
the world's first robotics doctoral program was initiated by Kanade at the
institute. Kanade is the author of 250 papers detailing his research, and
the owner of over 20 patents. He co-directs Carnegie Mellon and the
University of Pittsburgh's Quality of Life Technology Engineering Research
Center, whose focus is the use of robots as assistants to the elderly,
sick, and handicapped. Kanade envisions future houses equipped with
embedded sensors that can aid people in the performance of their day-to-day
activities, and foresees a time when a house will be able to track the
whereabouts and activities of its occupants. The professor is busy
perfecting his face recognition software, and is most proud of his "basic
theory of vision" that most computer video programs use.Click Here to View Full Articleto the top

The Theory Group of Microsoft Research is a team of about 20
mathematicians and theoretical computer scientists led by mathematical
physicists Jennifer Chayes and Christian Borgs who meet every day to
discuss any subject of interest. "Their list of visitors reads like a
veritable who's who of theoretical computer science," notes Carnegie Mellon
University computer scientist Lenore Blum. The existence and purpose of
the group reflects Microsoft Research's mission to concentrate on basic
computer science research as opposed to applied research, which most
industrial labs are emphasizing. There is an intentional disconnect
between the Theory Group's domain of research and the products under
development at Microsoft. Notable participants in the group include Oded
Schramm, who developed a mathematical proof demonstrating how certain
random 2D objects retain the same statistical attributes when distorted;
Michael Freedman, who has investigated the creation of a quantum computer
with low error rates through the application of topological quantum field
theory; Henry Cohn and Abhinav Kumar, who have done illustrious work on how
densely spheres can be clustered together within eight and 24 dimensions,
and Chayes and Borgs, who have elaborated on their research with phase
transitions and graph theory. "All of a sudden the stuff we were doing has
become relevant," observes Chayes. For instance, modeling Web complexity
is a job that graph theory is well suited for.Click Here to View Full Articleto the top